Despite earlier reports that rapper The Game (Jayceon Taylor) and his fiance, Tiffney Cambridge, were shopping a reality show centerered around their impending nuptials, the couple announced yesterday that the wedding is off. They broke the news themselves via their public wedding website. The ceremony was to take place later this month on July 28. The couple have two children.

This is The Game’s second broken engagement. His first, to Valeisha Butterfield, was dissolved in 2006.

It’s always a bit jarring when a couple abruptly cancels a wedding, but it’s also a testament to the couple’s ability to trust their instincts. If it’s not right, it’s not right, and just because you’re in the public eye (so public, in fact, that you were planning to televise your vows) doesn’t mean you have to go through with something your conscious/instinct/gut tells you is all wrong.

Reports are conflicting about who broke off the engagement, but either way, perhaps it’s better they end it now than keep going and have a toxic marriage and an ugly, protracted divorce. The Game hinted at brewing trouble via his Twitter page in the days leading up to the announcement:

Following the news, he tweeted:

Whether because of the gut’s propensity to raise red flags, a series of uncomfortable situations and clues, or a case of “cold feet,” the cancellation of weddings — particularly by the bride-to-be — is a growing phenomenon:

A cancelled wedding is nothing new. Ten to 15 percent are called off annually. But Shannon Tilley, a 36-year-old marketing manager from Atlanta, is on the cusp of a growing trend: women doing the walking. While numbers are hard to come by, wedding planners such as Marley Majcher of The Party Goddess in L.A. and Erin Halley of Erin Halley Events & Productions in New York say 75 percent of back-outs now come from the bride, the same percentage, by Majcher’s count, that came from the groom only a few years ago.

Knowing when to walk away is a particular gift, one that eludes many a couple in love (or under the pressure and expense of an engagement).

Have you ever broken off an engagement or ended a relationship you thought might be headed toward ill-fated marriage? How did you know when to walk?

Yes, I have. I broke off an engagement with my college sweetheart. I knew something was up when no matter how hard I tried I wasn’t remotely excited when shopping for a wedding gown or anything else that had to do with the planning of the wedding. No feeling at all…just there… and that’s not my personality at all. When I’m excited and into something EVERYBODY knows:) I don’t care what anybody says, your body/being knows when you are getting ready to get into something you have no business getting into and you need to listen. My ex-fiance was possessive, but he was very subtle about it. Comments like, I want to see your bathing suit before you go out, or I don’t know if that shirt is too tight or not. When I would give him the side eye on comments like this, he’d blow it off by saying it was just because he cared so much about me. Yeah right! I listened to my heart and my mom and got out ’cause I could see it getting worse down the line and in the blink of an eye I’m getting punched cause he feels as though my shorts are too short.

shadow

I stated my ex was possessive, I meant controlling.

Ann

When you like the sex better than the person, it’s time to leave. It’s best to get out as soon as possible. Once you meet someone who is like-minded and on one accord, nothing can compare

Phoenix

I broke off my engagement 8 months before we were to say I do. We did premarital counseling, had a contract on a house, ring shopping, tuxedo’s, chapel, everything. Every time I went for my dress fitting, I would break out in a sweat and the dress felt like it was 100 pounds. But the premarital counseling was the real reason. He flat out lied to the preacher and there were some blaring differences that stood out between us. So I wondered what could he have been lying to me about. We were not evenly yoked. So we ended it and it was the best thing I ever did. I told my pastor thank you for saving my life, because we really could have done some real damage if we said “I do.”